CatchAnd DaisyAsCatchCan

Poppy is an abandoned cat whom I took over from her finder on the 24th of last month. She has begun vaccinations and I am told by my vet that she must wait until a week after her second vaccination before she can be spayed. How do I make her more comfortable whilst she is in heat, since potentially she could go into heat at least once more during this period. She has the companionship of my other three cats, including my castrated male who does his best to comfort her.

Other than routine checks on electrical equipment etc, what measures might you take to protect your indoor cats from this eventuality?

I'm on my holiday currently. Not that I have loads of money to go disappearing abroad but I do not feel comfortable with swanning off somewhere leaving my cats in the care of strangers and so I have just had days out - always returning to my cats the same evening. There is no imperative sufficient to make me want to leave them for longer than that. I don't have a family to think about (aside from the cats themselves of course!) and I would feel guilty about not taking them out (they are now indoor, harness-trained cats) given the lovely weather we're currently enjoying.

I am in any case, a recluse, so drinking and socialising isn't my scene although I'm happy to converse with any individual. Do you have the same issue as I'm experiencing or have you been through that and how did you become comfortable with leaving your cats in the care of strangers?

I have established through questions on here already that my five year old castrated, former stray tomcat is NOT a Ragdoll Cat but this is one thing he has in common with the breed. He also has in common the trait of being comfortable in any position, with his legs hanging down at odd angles and generally having a very sweet nature.

Thomas does NOT have blue eyes, he is NOT as large as Ragdoll cats are described as being (he is around 4.5kg, although his growth was held back through being a stray and when I took him in, he weighed just 2.1 kg as an adult cat.) . He does purr a good deal but probably could not be described as a "dependable purrer" and he does flop about when relaxed but as a former stray he is most relaxed inside my bedsit and when outside his Fight or Flight mechanism is easily triggered by any unexpected sound or movement and this often draws comment. He is regarded as a nervous cat by people seeing him outside but is a very affectionate cat indoors and is slowly learning to trust people besides myself. He's always a very well behaved cat for the vet.

So how many of you have cats who enjoy being cuddled in this way? My female cat Daisy HATES to be cuddled but will sit on my shoulder to be carried and gaze intently into my eyes throughout the journey. Is your cat castrated if you have answered yes?

Beef heart is supposed to be exceptionally high in taurine, eaten raw. If it is eaten cooked, does it still provide a source of taurine for my cat, Daisy?

The huge old TomCat who once chased Daisy out of a tree and frightened her so badly that she shat herself, has today been making overtures of love to me. It is most unlike him but he wanted much petting and was bunting my hand with his head where as normally he won't let me near him. Daisy who was out walking with me was doing much backing away and hissing with me trying to soothe her and finally they sat opposite one another quietly, just watching one another, with Thomas watching jealously from my window above.

I think the truth is that this cat is losing more battles than he's winning now. He used to be the dominant cat in this neighbourhood and now his face is badly scarred and I feel quite sorry for him because today it felt to me like he's entered his second kittenhood. I met his owner when Daisy was a kitten because he offered to let her mate with this cat, so I gather the cat is mostly a stud for breeding from. If I see the owner again, I will recommend castration so this cat can have some peace in his twilight years. It doesn't seem fair to keep a cat like this intact now he is past his prime. Does anyone agree?

If you take away the difference in diets and the odour from both ends arising from the cat eating flesh...If you take away the different ears and tails, the long, sharp pointy claws that a cat has (Incidentally how do rabbit claws compare?)...

I was preparing rabbit for myself and cats just now and then had Daisy squirming in my hands whilst trying to brush her and got a weird sense of the animal on my chopping board being remarkably similar to the one I was feeding it to as in so many little bones, muscles and sinews, lack of fat (although this wouldn't apply to Thomas who is a very LARGE carnivorous rabbit and husband to the aforementioned Madam Daisy. Comments? (Don't take too seriously please!!!)

My cats cause me to become congested and require asthma inhalers. I just started using Qvar which is a preventer inhaler as I get in difficulties particularly if I get a head cold on top of allergies, doubling the congestion and causing me to wheeze and struggle to breathe at such times.

I would however like to consider switching to work with animals in some form. Would animals other than cats have the same effect on me or is it mostly cats who cause allergies because of them coating their hair with saliva and so on? It must be said that at this stage I have not taken an allergy test specific to cat allergy but blood testing and asthma testing has revealed that the issue of my breathing difficulties is allergy related rather than asthma and out of an array of allergy tests, I react only to airborne particles. I already knew myself to react to pollen but my breathing difficulties began around the time I took in my longer haired cat Thomas who has very fine hair so the timing fits, plus I do sneeze when brushing him although not just as a result of him being near me. I get no other allergy symptoms other than these and some of the difficulty is that I live in a bedsit so we all live and sleep together in quite a small area.

If I was working with zoo animals or with livestock or even with dogs as opposed to cats, could I expect to be allergic to these animals too?

I live in a bedsit which I decorated myself and only have cheap furniture so have never found it necessary to trim their claws to avoid damage. They used to climb trees as free roaming cats but are now indoor cats who are both harness trained to accompany me on walks and they have an indoor tree made from the branches of a tree cut down in our front garden: this serves as a climbing frame for Daisy and an additional scratching post for both cats. I guess another reason I don't want to trim the claws of my cats is the risk of cutting into the quick and making them bleed and hence cause them to panic. Do you trim the claws of your cat(s) and if so, for what reason? Do you do it yourself or does the vet or pet groomer do this for you?

Daisy has always targeted my bare feet since kitten-hood and I have tickled the toes on her back feet ever since I discovered it was the one place she was ticklish: she always gives her foot a little shake afterwards. My male cat Thomas reacts in the same way: is this common to all cats and do any other folk with cats on this site do the same?